Unspeak

Submarine Channel presents Unspeak, a brand-new interactive documentary investigating the manipulative power of language. Blending filmmaking, data, technology, and design, the story of Unspeak unfolds
across a series of short films, data visualizations, and a participatory dictionary. Unspeak is based on British journalist Steven Poole’s intriguing book of the same name. With its demand for sound-bytes and attention grabbing quotes, the
media creates Unspeak. Rather than critically investigating term coined by politicians, the media engines often indiscriminately hijack them.

What is Unspeak? How does it affect me? Who fabricates it? What is the role of the media in spreading Unspeak? How do we neutralize it? Through a radical collage of archival footage, quotes, and Steven Poole’s own enlightening analyses, Unspeak critically and satirically reveals the unspoken messages and obscured meanings behind familiar
media terms such as Weapons of Mass Destruction, File Sharing, Austerity Measures, Erectile Dysfunction, or the Dutch word Kopvoddentax.

WHAT IS UNSPEAK

Unspeak visualizes how language is manipulated to suit political agendas and the changing role and responsibility of the media. By tracing the history and incentives behind Unspeak terms, the documentary makes Unspeak framing visible to audiences and educates the public about this form of coded language that can be learned. Tune in to the wealth of daily Unspeak talk, so that you’ll start seeing and hearing it everywhere. And then, perhaps, we can fight back.